How to Remove a Google Play Store Account From Android

When you create a new Google Play Store account and use it on an Android device such as a mobile phone, tablet or TV for the first time, that device will use that account for accessing the Play Store from that point forward. Whenever you open the Play Store on your device, it will start as you are automatically logged in to your account.

Having a Google Play Store account, which is basically a new Google account assigned with a Gmail email address, is required for downloading, installing and updating mobile apps from the Play Store, but you can use different and sometimes multiple accounts on the same device if you want.

Unlike apps or websites, the Google Play Store does not offer an option to log out from its user interface, which might be a bit frustrating if you have privacy concerns and need to use another account to download and use apps, read books, listen to music or watch movies. Even clearing the stored data and cache and turning off the apps for the Google Play Store and Google Play Services from the Application Manager on your Android device will not log you off your account. If you want to log off from your Play Store account, you will need to totally remove that account from your device, if that is what you would prefer.

The next section of this post will show you how to do that.

How to Remove Your Google Play Store Account from Your Android Device

I will be using a Samsung Galaxy mobile phone with Android version 4+ to demonstrate removing a Google Play Store account; the process should be more or less the same on other phone models and Android versions.

STEP 1: Grab your phone (or tablet) and open the Settings screen.

The Settings page can usually be found on the Apps screen, but it may show difference depending on your setup.

STEP 2: Select the Accounts tab on the Settings panel, which will list your available accounts on this device.

STEP 3: Find Google from My Accounts list and tap on it.

On the next screen, you will see the list of Google accounts that are defined on this device, also the privacy settings for location and ads.

STEP 4: Tap on the email address that is assigned for the Play Store account you want to remove.

This will open the Sync Settings screen which lists a number of account synchronization options across different devices for your contacts, calendar, emails and app data. You will also see a Remove Account button at the bottom right corner of the screen.

On the next screen, you will be asked to confirm removing the account. As also the note on that screen says, removing your account will also delete all of its (Gmail) contacts, messages, and other data from your device. So, do it only if you are absolutely sure about removing your account.

Note that you can add the same account to your device at a later time, but all of its related data will be deleted during the removal.